Hurricane Fiona moved through Atlantic Canada when I was in Halifax. Boo and I stayed safe in our AirBNB even if we were both worried and a little frightened with the wind and rain. Neither of us got much sleep Friday night from the noise. Our power went out around 2230 but was out for less than a day. Cape Breton was harder hit, as was Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland. Power was restored to my rental in Ingonish before…
I’ve been wanting to visit the Maritimes for a while. I had a 5-6 week camping trip planned the summer of 2020, then, of course, COVID. Borders were closed. I was in New York when initially planning this trip to Canada. I was going to start with Montreal and head east, through the Atlantic Provinces, and take the ferry back to Maine. However, the Bar Harbor-Yarmouth ferry service ends October 10th so I decided to start here and end in…
Where next? After a couple months in Illinois to clean out my storage unit and a week in Michigan to meet my beautiful new granddaughter, I thought about going back to the Finger Lakes region. I loved my stay there in 2020 but decide to go somewhere different and booked upstate New York, finding a rental in Plattsburgh. I thought I would spend a lot of time in the Adirondacks but was closer to Lake Champlain and Vermont and Canada….
Cuyahoga Valley wasn’t high on my list of parks I ‘must’ visit but it was a little over halfway between where I was and where I wanted to be. I thought it would make a convenient stop for a couple days. It was created in 1974 to protect the Erie & Ohio canal history and the valley from over development. Local advocates worked with Congress to designate it a national park; it was partially created from two county parks in…
Our newest national park, New River Gorge! The “New River” is one of the oldest rivers on the continent. I was surprised to learn there are various methods to date the geological features, so the estimate varies widely between 3 to 320 million years. It’s been a national river since 1978, was “upgraded” to national park and preserve in 2020. On the drive from Charlottesville to Beckley, I stopped at the Sandstone Visitor Center. They have some good exhibits on…
I stayed in Charlottesville about 18 months ago when visiting Shenandoah National Park. I did make a short, too short, visit to Monticello. I booked the house tour but left it to the end of the day, without time for visiting the grounds, the other buildings or exhibits. So when returning to the area, I booked two speciality tours at Monticello. The Hemings Family tour was very interesting. We started with Elizabeth Hemings, daughter of an English sea captain and African…
The battle of Antietam was the bloodiest day in the history of the United States. On September 17, 1862, 23,000 soldiers were killed, wounded, or missing after twelve hours of combat between the Armies of the Potomac and Virginia. I booked a tour through the NPS website with Antietam Guides, offered through the park’s cooperative. I read up on the battle prior to meeting my guide Sharon at 0900 at the visitor center. Scheduled for four hours, we were about four and…
I tried visiting Harpers Ferry NHP about 18 months ago, on the way from Gettysburg to Shenandoah but, on a beautiful Saturday afternoon in the fall, it was crazy busy. There was no parking in the small historic town, even the overflow parking lot two miles up the road was full, so I kept driving. It took me over an hour to get in and out and back on the road because of bumper to bumper traffic. When planning a visit…
The NPS manages all the battlefields in the area, Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania, Chancellorsville, and the Wilderness. It also manages several historic buildings, including Chatham Manor. The battles in the area were over a period of about 18 months, starting with the first battle of Fredericksburg in December, 1862, between Burnside and Lee. Chancellorsville was April and May, 1963. Lee defeated Union general Hooker here and this was where Stonewall Jackson was mortally wounded during the battle. The second battle of Fredericksburg…
I had a small AirBNB in a great location, by the Eastern Market in Capital Hill. It’s a beautiful neighborhood, great walking, lots of shops and restaurants in the area, and a metro station just a few blocks away. A Trader Joe’s was in walking distance as well so I could pick up some groceries but I drove over to the Aldi a couple miles away to stock the fridge. I walked down to the mall the first day, it…